May 12, 2013

May Blog Chain - Dialogue


Once again it's time for the Absolute Write Blog chain. This month's prompt: Make a post that is only back-and-forth dialogue, with no description or tags. As always, it may be fiction or nonfiction, prose or poetry, or any other form you care to use. If you want an additional prompt for your dialogue, you can use "Wrong Place, Right Time," but this is strictly optional.

Please read and comment on the other links in the chain that are listed at the end of my piece. You will be amazed at how much can be conveyed through conversation without dialogue tags.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

“Miss Saint James? I—You! You’re Alexis St. James?”

“That I am, and you are?”

“Alexis St. James the writer?”

“No, that would be me. My friends call me Lexi.”

“You wrote the Dungeon Mistress, and Come On Command?”

“That would be me. Why don’t you have a seat; you don’t look so good. Would you care for some iced tea?”

“You're really Alexis St. James?”

“I’m sorry if you’re disappointed . . . ”

“What? No! No, I’m not disappointed, just surprised, that’s all.”

“The truth is, I wrote those books a long time ago, when I was young, and stupid, and needed the money badly. It’s just the last few years there’s been a jump in the erotica market and my publisher decided to re-release my early work.”

“So the picture on the back cover wasn't changed with the new editions?”

“And in case you’re wondering, I am, or was, nothing like the women in those books, even in my younger days.”

“What? I mean, you’re not?”

“My sex life was never close to as interesting as my heroines. Ninety percent of the stuff in those books is all made up – I’ve never tried any of it. And some of it may not even be possible.”

“This is not good. This is not good at all.”

“Sorry to disappoint you son, but I’ve lived a pretty vanilla life.”

“I’m not disappointed. The truth is, I’m rather relieved. I’m just worried about how my employer is going to take it. The picture on the back of your books . . .”

“That was me, all right. About thirty years ago.”

“I’ve come a long way to meet you . . .”

“Is that a fact?”

“Yes ma’am. My employer—”

“I don’t care how far you’ve come. If you ‘ma’am’ me again I’ll be dumping this pitcher of iced tea over your head.”

“Sorry, Miss St. James. My employer—”

“You’d better call me Lexi.”

“Lexi . It suits you.”

“Thank you. And you are?”

“I’m sorry, my name is Benedict. I’m here on behalf of my employer who wishes to meet you and—”

“No.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Sweetie, you can beg anything you want, but the answer is still no.”

“How can you say no? I haven’t even asked you anything yet.”

“You don’t need to. I don’t do interviews and I don’t go off with strange men I don’t know, no matter how gorgeous they are, and I especially don’t go off with strange men to meet even stranger fans.”

“But I—You think I’m gorgeous?”

“You can wipe that grin right off your face. It was a slip of the tongue.”

“You feel it too, don’t you?”

“Don’t be ridiculous! I’m twice your age. I’m old enough to be your mother!”

“Look me in the eye. Tell me you don’t want this too and I’ll leave you alone.”

“This isn’t some kind of ploy to get me to agree to go meet your employer, is it?”

“No, this is just for me.”

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

The other links in the chain:

orion_mk3 - http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com ~ link to post
Ralph Pines - http://ralfast.wordpress.com/ ~ link to post
articshark - http://www.drslaten.com/blog ~ link to post
Sudo_One - http://sudoone.wordpress.com/ ~ link to post
Nissie - http://www.rinchupeco.com/ ~ link to post
Angyl78 - http://jelyzabeth.wordpress.com/ ~ link to post
Lady Cat - http://randomwriterlythoughts.blogspot.ca/ ~ you are here
U2Girl - http://ancatdubh.org/ ~ (link to post)
MsLaylaCakes - http://www.taraquan.com/ ~ (link to post)
SuzanneSeese - http://www.viewofsue.blogspot.com/ ~ (link to post)
LanaK - http://lanaketrick.blogspot.com/ ~ (link to post)
in_one - http://quirkythomas.blogspot.com/ ~ (link to post)

Bumped:
pushingfordream - http://www.danielwallock.com/ ~ (link to post)
pyrosama - http://matrix-hole.blogspot.com/ ~ (link to post)

8 comments:

Rafael said...

Methinks the messenger is self-employed. ;)

DR Slaten said...

I love the smexy. LOVE.

Anonymous said...

Oh!! I loved it. He couldn't get a word in edgewise. Great story!

Anonymous said...

Loved it, especially since I can totally relate :-) Hope they have fun!

Sue said...

Love what you did with the prompt.

orion_mk3 said...

I have just about had it with Blogger. I had a nice long thoughtful comment about how good this coquettish dialogue is, and it was swallowed whole, never to be seen again.

C R Ward said...

Aww, sorry to hear that Orion. Glad you enjoyed my dialogue anyway. :-) It comes from a WIP that I'm hoping to have finished in the new year.

Amelie said...

This is cool!